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The building of the current Music Theatre at 2 Mezhigorskaya Street, formerly the House of Culture or the Kharchovyk Club, is a prominent landmark on Kontraktova Square in Kyiv. It was built in the 1930s according to a design by the renowned architect Mykola Oleksandrovych Shekhonin. However, existing images show a noticeable difference between the final appearance of the building and the original design, although the latter was initially used. In printed publications that examine in detail the history of the construction of the former Kharchovyk Cultural Centre, this circumstance is either ignored or perceived as a normal working episode. Meanwhile, the facts show that construction was suspended at the final stage and part of the structures was redesigned, changing the appearance of the building. We have reason to believe that this unusual situation should be considered primarily in the context of the evolution of the Bolshevik leadership's attitude towards artistic forms at the time, in particular, the use of the constructivist style in the development of Soviet cities, which was initially perceived as the most "revolutionary" and then subjected to persecution. Based on this understanding of the changes to the building, an attempt has been made to reconstruct the course of events, examine the most characteristic features of M. Shekhonin's original design, and recreate the lost layout of the upper floors of the Kharchovyk Cultural Centre. It also shows the techniques the author of the project was forced to use in order to move away from the constructivist solution for the facades and volume of the building in the direction of "Soviet Art Deco" (later, during the restoration of the building in the late 1970s, the relevant elements were largely removed). The research materials allow us to conclude that the building of the former Kharchovyk Cultural Centre became a telling example of the direct intervention of ideological guidelines into architectural creativity at a certain historical stage.